I sit 96 inches from a 48 inch screen and found the macro blocking extremely annoying and distracting. Recently I watched a commercial DVD of Person of Interest, Season One, and found the quality of the picture to be very good. If I could not see the source, based on PQ alone, it would be hard to tell whether I was watching from the HD recorder or the DVD.

I sit 96 inches from a 48 inch screen and found the macro blocking extremely annoying and distracting. Recently I watched a commercial DVD of Person of Interest, Season One, and found the quality of the picture to be very good. If I could not see the source, based on PQ alone, it would be hard to tell whether I was watching from the HD recorder or the DVD.

As I recall a commercial DVD is about 10 mega bits.

My opinion is that OTA viewers would be better served with more Widescreen SD programs with good audio than fewer HD programs..
I think some others would not agree.

I don't understand how the broadcast spectrum auctions are supposed to work.

I mean, let's say that station WEEP decides to participate in the auction and get out of the broadcasting business if it can get enough money out of the auction. What does WEEP do to find out how much money it is likely to get?

Or is it a completely secret process where only the stations, the bidders, and the auction officials know who is participating?

Honestly, though, I don't see why any TV market needs more than a half dozen stations.

The stations have not proved that there is enough good program content to fill the airtime of the stations that currently exist.

I would rather have excellent hi definition images with half way decent shows, on say 8 or 9 channels, than I would a bunch of blurry SD images and weak HD because of the SD on subs with nothing but junk on them like most of what I have now. I do think This TV, Movies!, antenna TV, MeTV, and possibly Get TV (have not seen it yet) do offer decent choices, but much beyond that, and it's stuff that hasn't impressed me enough to justify the space it eats up.

One thing I would like to see end is the networks evening news. I think a lot of people have stopped watching, because most of it is propaganda, and not real investigative journalism. Let our locals tell us what is happening.

All a market really needs is five or six stations. That would cover NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and the youngster, FOX, all in HD.

Stations with a significant Hispanic viewership would also get Univision in HD.

The smaller networks or programming services, such as CW, Ion, and MyNetwork could auction off their spectrum and either stop broadcasting altogether or else become subchannels on one of the bigger stations.

That would still leave room for a few diginets, such as Me-TV, AntennaTV, and GetTV.

All a market really needs is five or six stations. That would cover NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and the youngster, FOX, all in HD.
Stations with a significant Hispanic viewership would also get Univision in HD.

The smaller networks or programming services, such as CW, Ion, and MyNetwork could auction off their spectrum and either stop broadcasting altogether or else become subchannels on one of the bigger stations.
That would still leave room for a few diginets, such as Me-TV, AntennaTV, and GetTV.

What is desperately needed, though, is good educational programming.

Need all seven here in ACC Country. MYTV gets secondary football and basketball games. I would hate to give up 7 months of games just to get some low-budget SD crap.

All a market really needs is five or six stations. That would cover NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and the youngster, FOX, all in HD.
Stations with a significant Hispanic viewership would also get Univision in HD.

The smaller networks or programming services, such as CW, Ion, and MyNetwork could auction off their spectrum and either stop broadcasting altogether or else become subchannels on one of the bigger stations.
That would still leave room for a few diginets, such as Me-TV, AntennaTV, and GetTV.

What is desperately needed, though, is good educational programming.

Need all seven here in ACC Country. MYTV gets secondary football and basketball games. I would hate to give up 7 months of games just to get some low-budget SD crap.

I don't think ACC basketball is worthy of HD. SD is perfectly fine for the free-throw missers.

Besides, if any subchannels are going to be used for sports, the sports should be baseball, hockey, and curling.

Need all seven here in ACC Country. MYTV gets secondary football and basketball games. I would hate to give up 7 months of games just to get some low-budget SD crap.

Better use of what we have would do it. We can't keep losing HD sports OTA - I noticed there is no more Fox MLB on Saturday OTA, it's only on FS1 and Fox Deportes. Sports in SD is annoying. The Bulls, Railhawks, and Div 2 football on MeTV from WRAZ are not bad looking though, but that is because WRAL/WRAZ actually care. Sports on 8-2 look pretty good, too. Have you seen basketball on WFMY2? Just awful. Many times, the ACC Network on WRAL2 or MeTV 50-2 are shown in HD on My48, which is probably the only thing Sinclair gets right.

If they're going to re-do the channels, anyway...

All LP signals in an area can be put on one frequency. This station can also take many subchannels so that some lesser stations can send two HD signals like WTVD and WUVC. What do most LP stations really do for their cities anyway? WGSR is an exception, WGSR and those like it regionally can be the "host" signal for the new, full-power station. Without LP's cluttering the airwaves, real stations can increase power. CW and MY can easily be combined. Markets like Charlotte can trade their pointless WAXN and WHKY stations and get ION and Univision. Charlotte's OTA offerings are quite minimal for a city of its size, judging by rabbitears info.

Each antenna farm area should have an emergency station on a sub-channel. Low-bandwidth slides with the ticker information so that local channels can't distort and ruin the programming with tickers about daycare closings. Carry it on cable and satellite. Put a QR code on the screen for an online listing. This is 2014. Fox is far from a youngster. It's been around for long enough now. It's not the big 3, it's been the Big 4 for a long time!

Each mid and large market needs these, HD is almost required for those labeled. They can be subchannels if viewership or demographics do not warrant a primary signal, of course. As for the subnets, the older shows need to stay on TV. Christian programming is important, too, but not all will agree with that. There are so Christian/religious broadcasters now, most are SD. Everyone would be better served with the big signal I mentioned earlier.

Abolish DMA exclusivity. Fox 8 comes in just fine OTA in Chapel Hill, yet it doesn't exist to them. Burlington is a foreign land to WTVD, despite being on cable and satellite here, and the most reliable ABC signal OTA, too. The COL is only 25 miles away, for crying out loud. DMAs are good for rural areas between cities without OTA reception. I would be fine if they kept current DMAs BUT also required satellite and cable to carry stations in their OTA range, too, in HD. For those of us who live in one DMA and work in another, much of the news is irrelevant to us. I have no connection to most of the Triad. Downtown Winston-Salem is 55 miles from my house. So is Raleigh. Why is one "local" and the other not?!?!?!

I am hesitant to wish too much for local TV to go away because "be careful what you wish for, you just might get it." With OTA, I am able to rid my home of WFMY (most of the time) and change to Fox 50 to avoid tickers. Does anyone watch TWC News on ABC45 (or at all?). As we watch local news deteriorate more and more, do we need so much of itl? So much is packaged and nationwide, anyway. Same packages shown nationwide. Watching David Crabtree doing "What's Trending?" last week was a low point in my life, and, judging from his body language, his too.

Typically, when TV tells me "What's Trendy"... I tend to do just the opposite. I hate the nanny state, and I want people to have their own ideas and not feel the need to do what everyone else tells them to, like Justin Biebler and the Today show, just for examples. This is also why I have an antenna, because most people do not... I used to have Direct when most people didn't, and when they got fat headed, I dumped them! That is normal.

... We can't keep losing HD sports OTA - I noticed there is no more Fox MLB on Saturday OTA, it's only on FS1 and Fox Deportes. Sports in SD is annoying. The Bulls, Railhawks, and Div 2 football on MeTV from WRAZ are not bad looking though, but that is because WRAL/WRAZ actually care.

I am very happy that WRAZ is not a FOX O&O and that it carries WRAL's news coverage.

Capitol Broadcasting has more of a commitment to the local area, I think.

As for MLB being available OTA, I think that is fading away and soon will vanish completely.

There's just too much money to be made from selling the rights to regional cable sports networks.

The days of local broadcast affiliates in small markets carrying MLB games involving teams from nearby large markets is fading away, too.

The college money sports of basketball and football are out of control and are corrupting the colleges and universities. I would much rather see minor league baseball OTA than see some of the big-time universities.

One person''s heaven is another person's hell. I rarely watch sports, enjoy both local and network evening news, watch the CW about as much as I watch CBS, NBC and ABC. I know of people that daily watch religious services. Variety is welcome because goodness knows the lowest common denominator keeps getting lower and lower; both on cable and OTA networks.

Remember when Discovery used to be mostly about science, TLC meant The Learning Channel, CNN was Cable News Network and The Weather Channel reported weather. Tune to those same channels now and you get "Honey Boo Boo", "Mountain Monsters", commentary and Coast Guard Alaska!

The OTA networks don'e seem to be much better.

I'd love to see subchannels that offer true 24 hour news coverage similar to what Headline News used to do, 24 hour weather that don't compress the maps so small they can't be seen and offer more family friendly fare similar to INSP or Hallmark.

I notice that until September, all of the Big FOX (Free Fox??) Saturday games are evening games.

It's sad to see weekend baseball in the sunshine disappear. And why have all of the networks pretty much abandoned scripted drama programs on Saturday nights? Do the sports programs really draw good ratings?

I notice that until September, all of the Big FOX (Free Fox??) Saturday games are evening games.
It's sad to see weekend baseball in the sunshine disappear. And why have all of the networks pretty much abandoned scripted drama programs on Saturday nights? Do the sports programs really draw good ratings?

Many of the top-rated programs are sports.

I hope that MLB EI and mlb.tv users get access to all of those Fox games, unlike the past.

And why have all of the networks pretty much abandoned scripted drama programs on Saturday nights? Do the sports programs really draw good ratings?

Sports is about the only thing that can draw an audience on Saturday nights. That is why shows the networks want to kill move to Friday or Saturday nights. Those two nights have become the graveyard of unwanted shows.

All opinions expressed (unless otherwise noted) are the posters and NOT the posters employers. The poster in NO WAY is/will speak for his employers. "Arguing with an engineer is like mud wrestling with a pig. After a couple of hours, you realize the pig likes it"

Sports is about the only thing that can draw an audience on Saturday nights. That is why shows the networks want to kill move to Friday or Saturday nights. Those two nights have become the graveyard of unwanted shows.

Funny how times change. In the 1960s, we used to look forward to the world television premieres on Saturday Night at the Movies. Of course, that was when movies didn't ordinarily make it to TV until they were at least seven years old.

A decade or so later, I enjoyed the mindless two hour block of the Love Boat and Fantasy Island.

In TV's heyday, you had phenomena like "Berle Night", where you couldn't get an operator on the phone and businesses would close down while Milton Berle was on the tube. Now TV seemingly closes down on Friday and Saturday nights because it can't draw the audience to sustain original, creative programming.

That's a REAL indication that the times are changing and the TV business now operates more from the margins rather than the center of public interest.

Typically, when TV tells me "What's Trendy"... I tend to do just the opposite. I hate the nanny state, and I want people to have their own ideas and not feel the need to do what everyone else tells them to, like Justin Biebler and the Today show, just for examples. This is also why I have an antenna, because most people do not... I used to have Direct when most people didn't, and when they got fat headed, I dumped them! That is normal.

I couldn't agree more. The nanny state creates what I call the 'dumbing down' of America. We all need to do our own research and form our own conclusions versus getting 'fed' baby food so to speak.....and ending up being naïve or gullible as it relates to world events or whatever the topic of dicussion. In this respect, the internet has became a good source of alternate news for many people. But I'd like to see the days when our major networks (CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX) return to simply reporting news versus inserting their own political bias into the situation.... or simply not reporting on important world news events at all. And IMO, more restrictions as it relates to the broadcast spectrum is not in the best interest of the viewing public in this country as it only serves to degrade the future of broadcast television while promoting the ever increasing costs of cable and satellite. Sadly I don't think the NAB has done near enough to promote the public airwaves or reinvent themselves in the modern era. Still, I will always remain an avid supporter for OTA.

I don't know if this changes anything on reception of WGSR-LD, but the FCC finally got around to issuing us a "Transport Stream ID" last week. I inserted this into the station's air encoder. Does anyone know what this ID does, or where I would see it in the decoded data stream?

I don't know if this changes anything on reception of WGSR-LD, but the FCC finally got around to issuing us a "Transport Stream ID" last week. I inserted this into the station's air encoder. Does anyone know what this ID does, or where I would see it in the decoded data stream?

Thanks,
Matt

The TSID is what allows EPG's to differentiate between stations on the same major channel numbers and to display and tune to the different stations. No two stations have the same TSID. It is unique to each station. You can use TSReader to see the number.

Early on, receivers sometimes barfed when you changed the TSID and it took a complete dump of the table and rescan. Nowadays, just a simple rescan or maybe a lock the channel will change the table and the viewer never knows it. TSID is one of those things you really don't want to mess with because it likes to break everything downstream. In this case, you didn't have a choice, but I suspect you won't have too much trouble unless someone is using an old STB or maybe a Magnavox coupon converter. Those things are notorious to not working correctly when you don't do anything to the stream.

All opinions expressed (unless otherwise noted) are the posters and NOT the posters employers. The poster in NO WAY is/will speak for his employers. "Arguing with an engineer is like mud wrestling with a pig. After a couple of hours, you realize the pig likes it"

In TV's heyday, you had phenomena like "Berle Night", where you couldn't get an operator on the phone and businesses would close down while Milton Berle was on the tube. Now TV seemingly closes down on Friday and Saturday nights because it can't draw the audience to sustain original, creative programming.

That's a REAL indication that the times are changing and the TV business now operates more from the margins rather than the center of public interest.

Later......
Matt Smith
Gatekeeper of the low-diameter gate

I think I have to object to using Berle as a phenomenon of TV's "heyday"
Uncle Miltie may have been Mr. Television for a couple of years in the early days of network TV. As more areas gained network access, and more stations offered choices, Berle's appeal began to falter. For a lot of people, a little Berle went a long way, and a lot of Berle caused dials to click. Berle may have sold TV when many did not have it, but TV could not sell Berle as a star. in competition with others. Like, perhaps, Paul Lynde, Berle was great for a few minutes, but could not sustain interest for extended periods.
But, Matt, your point is well taken about TV's "heyday", which was probably the 60's-80's. Network TV was the center of public attention. It established characters in American folklore such as Eddie Haskell, Barney Fife and Radar O'Reilly. , not to mention Jed Clampett and Arnold Ziffel. There is actually nothing much different today, except that 3 networks of good programming are now compressed into about 20 broadcast and cable services .......... AND.......... if you want those 3 networks of quality commercial programming, you WILL pay for 120,

I just read on the Raleigh National Weather Service (NWS) website that effective May 30, the NWS has been requested to remove its NWR equipment from Sauratown Mountain in Stokes County. The NWR is on the WXII tower, correct? If so, I am guessing WXII is behind this action? Anyone know any details as to why it must be removed? Here's the NWS statement regarding the issue:

I just read on the Raleigh National Weather Service (NWS) website that effective May 30, the NWS has been requested to remove its NWR equipment from Sauratown Mountain in Stokes County. The NWR is on the WXII tower, correct? If so, I am guessing WXII is behind this action? Anyone know any details as to why it must be removed? Here's the NWS statement regarding the issue:

I asked around, and, the story is not what it seems. . NOAA Radios' lease on the WXII tower is expiring, and Hearst asked the NWS to renew. No request for removal of eguipment has been made .
Evidently, someone at the NWS took the request for lease renewal as some sort of eviction notice. Or, some game is being played